Apr 6 2014:
I would address race relations. It is to our disadvantage that many of us lack the knowledge of how important differences in color, nationality, languages and experiences are to our ultimate uprising as a human family. There is beauty within all of us and where we live. If we could as a human family member join in to our not so distant relatives and utilize our resources whatever they may be for the purpose of success with others how wonderful that world would be. We would all be free and the importance of economics would no longer need to be our primary focus of our existence. We could enjoy our lives while we live and be Happy living in our rooms without roofs! Thanks Pharrell

Apr 4 2014:
False dichotomy: Presenting conditions or situations as if they were opposite when they are not actually opposite. Example: Human development vs. economic development. This is a false dichotomy, and a very silly one, based on the outright lie that the economic aspect of human life is somehow magically (ooga booga ooga booga ooga booga) separated from all other aspects of human life. It's as silly and stupid as presenting a human hand as an opposite to the human body. Economic development is PART OF human development. If there is a problem, it is with emphasis among the DIFFERENT PARTS OF human development.

As for a better (aka, less silly) question: "How do we balance economic concerns within the entire picture of human life as a whole?"

Thinking is not difficult, it is rational thinking that tends to be a problem for a few or many. Mind reading is a problem and I choose not to insert my thoughts into the blanket and unsubstantiated statements of others.
Your statement was that you would teach others about 'false dichotomies', without bothering to state what they may be or what you may be referring to. You stated that you would tell them to ask better questions. Questions about what?
In your explanation you stated that some one has lied to these people and told them that their economic well-being is not associated with all other aspects of human life. Can you tell me who that was and perhaps, provide a quote.
As for your second to last paragraph; why did you not just say that, not to difficult, as opposed to assuming that some one whats to bother to try to read your mind.
There is no longer any point in responding to you.

Apr 5 2014:
False dichotomy: The very subject of this conversation, to wit--"Human Development vs Economic Development". There's the fundamental false dichotomy upon which this entire conversation is based.

Apr 6 2014:
"A dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts, meaning it is a procedure in which a whole is divided into two parts. It is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets) that are:
jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, and
mutually exclusive: nothing can belong simultaneously to both parts.

Such a partition is also frequently called a bipartition.

The two parts thus formed are complements. In logic, the partitions are opposites if there exists a proposition such that it holds over one and not the other."

"I want your stuff." communication.
"You can't have it, it's my stuff, and you have plenty of stuff." communication.
"I still want your stuff, anyway, I know I have enough, but I want more just because I like it." communication.
"I actually need my stuff or I will starve." communication.
"I don't care if you starve. Making others starve amuses me because it shows how powerful I am." communication.

An interesting proposition. If I were a god with a godly wisdom, the educational system would be my choice. The indoctrination of young malleable minds is to control the future of a nation, from the bedroom, to the work place, to all aspects of the society. “The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother's care, shall be in state institutions.” Karl Marx

To control the education of the child is not simply a control of the now or the control of a society, it is a control of the past. It is to rewrite, relearn that, which may conflict with greater plans for expansion of the educational process. "Two plus two is five." Truth becomes subversive and history is only that, which serves to advance the future. As teacher it is I, then, that defines and gives definition
"Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity." Kofi Annan
Education then is my choice, as one nation has no value if it is the world I want and why should I stop with just one country when I am right and the cause is right and right is by my definition.

One nation then serves only to raise and educate those thought warriors that now advance across into the lands of neighboring countries. Their purpose, their objective is to demoralize and divide, to promise a peace of love, kindness and openness, a tolerance to and for all things, void of a false past, a false history and culture that exploited and enslaved the innocent. A past that with the expectation of individual responsibility encroached and intruded into the personal lives of its people, not allowing a free expression of desire and self fulfillment.
“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
George Orwell, 1984

Apr 6 2014:
Good job guy! actually when you use the marx theories with different proposals and solution, you should get more balance on the human development. dosent have to be like URSS example and others examples that had been losing the meaning of real human develpment. the anarchism is the way but first prepared the culturar thinking of the people

Thank you for the accolade, but it was a fairly easy scenario to build. I simply turned over my judgement to base emotions ie. greed, the quest for power over the lives of others, promiscuity or whatever base instincts one might possess. Totalitarian is a good word, King, Pharaoh, Lord, God are the words that guided me to outline the current situation in the Western world and guess what; I won the prize.
No, Sebastian I am not an anarchist, nor a Marxist Socialist. I am an American and to be an American, one endorses the concept of individual freedom, predicated on limited government. Its an antiquated political philosophy that the USA was founded on. It was a grand experiment, but, as it was said, that it would happen; when the people realized that they could vote themselves money, the republic would end.
I know what anarchism is, but just for conversation, how would you go about achieving it? Much the same way as I outlined above, employing deceit and other things. Perhaps, it would be in line with, 'If you like your Doctor you can keep him" You may not know the reference, but it is fitting.
Philosophically speaking anarchism requires a much higher degree of evolution then we now possess and to achieve such a state human, with all our faults could not exist. I don't think this is a concern, as it is the promise of a utopia that is the attraction to many, as socialism is now. But for all such altruistic philosophies it is not the end result, it is the struggle.
I am open to correction if you would care to engage in such a dialogue.

Please bear with me when this may seem to go off-topic, the ending will be self-explaining.

The legal system should be reviewed and compared to practical executions of the current laws, in order to see which laws are actually advantageous to the middle class. The reason i state this, is because the middle class is the barometer for the country’s prosperity. Where there is no middle class, there can be only super poor and super rich.

To eradicate the middle class is easy: raise the price of living and taxes. The easiest way to do that, is to raise the cost of transportation. The price of fuel directly influences the price of delivery, which in turn influences the price of goods, which influences the end-salary left after all bills have been paid. The poor cannot afford these costs while the rich find ways around these costs.

Raising taxes and the fuel price shall eventually force people to choose between forced poverty or forced riches. Forced poverty because many will, no matter how hard they work, end the month at a loss; and forced riches, because those few who reach it, have to push themselves past normal human limits in order to find a semblance of positive income.

A broken legal system will put unnecessary strain on society with expensive security measures, which would be unnecessary, were the criminals treated according to their crime. Even worse, a broken legal system costs more to uphold that a working system, adding more taxes, creating poverty and eventually, with people either in desperation to survive or greed to get to the top too fast, creating more crime.

Get the legal system right, allow the people their own property and responsibilities, and the people shall develop themselves and their economy on their own. Create a welfare state where the government is all, owns all, taxes all and gives unemployment grants; and the people shall lose ambition, fall beyond mediocrity and eventually destroy the economy.

Apr 15 2014:
For me, I think Communication, and when people learn how to communicate to each other well, Understanding well mold them as a great Citizen, from Innovations to morality, things would be easy to Improve, because failures and success will be easy to put a point of understanding.

Apr 13 2014:
Problems in countries are too numerous to say but if I was to choose just one area for improvement it would have to be politics. I would give full control of the countries money to the government (removing the idea of a bank). And would focus on ironing out the creases in class divides. Excess income would HAVE to be spent or it would go to services for the country. Based off this simple idea I would guess that being forced to spend money would lead to business inception and growth on a large scale and unemployment would drop significantly.
This idea is a premature on but a feasible introduction to remove the plague of capitalism. (no commu)

Apr 12 2014:
I think the pursuit of economic prosperity evolved from West. It was less than 200 years ago people's life goal transferred to money,money,money. The Industrial Revolution boosted productivity as well as people's desire. Because a person's limit was snatched away to some extent. We lost our souls,we hyporitically peddle human rights,democracy,justice,peace,etc. But as a matter of fact, what we truly want is money,nice car,big house.
As we all know in ancient times,people had a longing for spiritual growth,even that was a fundamental purpose of life. Look at this world now,those who proclaim spirituality would be categorically ashamed to show their true face if they were deprived from their possession.

Apr 4 2014:
I would focus on Cultural Development to not only include good moral standards, instead to make them part of everyday life.
A year or so ago when researching my ancestry, I learned of the Vikings’ 9 Noble Virtues (Courage, Honor, Fidelity, Discipline, Hospitality, Self-Reliance, Industriousness, Perseverance and Truth) and unknowingly I believe the USA founding fathers lived by them and I have always strive to achieve them.

I do think they need to be modernized/put into today’s terms and to address today’s issues.

For Example:

*Discipline would also include eating right to stay healthy.

*Truth in today’s terms would be “Stay true to your word” is what they evidence of its Viking meaning. But I feel Truth is something you not only stay but also seek, have the courage to accept, and teach/share and maybe it did with the Viking also and there has been no evidence found of that yet.

*Hospitality in today’s world would include charity and i would add "Hospitality" to all no matter their sex, nationality, economics/class, etc. etc.

*Industriousness has nothing to do with today’s industries, instead should mean being a hard skillful and creative/clever worker.

Apr 3 2014:
I would start with the simplest unit and link from there. Just like a house will not stand without a good foundation other structures including organisms have the same requirement. In humans it is individuals, families, communities, organizations and so on. Each dependent upon each other for progress.

TED Conversations Archives

We’ve spent three years sharing Ideas, Debates and Questions — and learned a lot.

Now we’re going on hiatus to retool and rebuild from the inside out for a better conversation experience.